18th and 19th centuries

The artists gathered, here, from Castro Canseco to Magarinos, put together in the same space-the pages of this volume -two hundred and fifty years of the history of Galician sculpture.

These names show the different aesthetic trends that were brought into Galicia throughout the 18th, 19th and the early 20th century.

If we had to find the common factor for all these artists, of great import within the Spanish sculpture, it would be the social structure which they were integrated and the dependence on a kind of clients that, although it is going to change in the course of the years, will keep on being mainly ecclesiastie. This fact highlights the religious function of sculpture and the role of maker of religious images that the sculptor will play.

As regards the 18th century, its two first thirds constitute the continuation of the Galician baroque sculpture. In keeping with the development and boost of architecture during the previous century, sculptors have the chance to design the decoration and furnishing of every temple that had been erected, contributing thus to their magnificence and splendor.